Hugo has certainly had an action packed young life with all of those moves! But with that comes experience and that is a valuable thing to have!
Hugo Montgomery and the Martyrs of Merthyr
An FM20 story about the exploit of Hugo Montgomery at Welsh side Merthyr Town FC
A lot of experience for a young lad, Merthyr have appointed the right man for the job I think!
Working alongside another young manager in Kevin Nicholson at Bangor must have been very useful for Hugo.
Merthyr Academy Announced
Merthyr Town have revealed plans for a youth academy within the club, with a major renovation due to take place over the coming months.
Despite consecutive Welsh Development League titles, the majority of Merthyr’s young players are graduates of the Swansea or Cardiff academies or have moved directly from the Welsh Premier League. The financial benefits of the clubs’ cup runs last season have meant the club is now in a position to invest more heavily in youth and look to attract high quality players from the Mid Glamorgan area who might have otherwise joined the likes of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport County.
The renovation is believed to cost in the region of £140,000 and will be completed in September. Among the improvements will be the addition of two pitches for the youth sides, upgrades to the existing youth gym and the hiring of two full-time youth coaches for the club’s youth side.
The first academy players will join the club in the coming months and are expected to be finalised by April next year.
Big move from the club, but the potential benefits from it are worth far more than the £140,000 they've spent initially. Slowly, but surely, the club will invest millions in the academy set-up, and that'll take away the reliance on Swansea/Cardiff to churn out youngsters to poach. Great move for Merthyr! 
The further you can spread your catchment area, the better. It increases the chances of nabbing talent that otherwise could fall into the hands of the names you mentioned.
J_ames & ScottT: At the moment, it's like I have a Cardiff/Swansea addiction, just have to slowly wean myself off it by investing over several years.
Merthyr Sign Przybek
Merthyr Town have dipped into the transfer market for the first time this season, picking up Adam Przybek on a free transfer after the goalkeeper left Woking earlier this month.
The 25 year old has been signed as the replacement for Aaron Jones, and much like Jones, has been signed based on his form at a lower level, with Przybek one of Woking’s best in the Vanarama South last season. At 186cm, he is strong in the air which was a noted weakness for Merthyr Town last season.
After making an impressive 15 clean sheets, the Welsh keeper departed the club in search of better opportunities and will play in his native Wales for the first time in his career. Formerly a West Brom academy player, he made his professional debut in 2019 for Gloucester City before signing for Ipswich, making one league appearance for the Tractor Boys and spending several years out on loan. He has National League experience with Halifax Town and Woking.
In other news, Merthyr has extended the loan of talented winger Charlie Delve, who will remain with the club until the end of the season.
Charlie McLean Open To Offers
Merthyr Town chairman Charlie McLean (far right) is open to offers amid rumours of a potential takeover at Penydarren Park.
The South Welsh club has seen sustained success in recent years, winning promotion to the Vanarama North in 2020 before winning the league in 2023/24 and following it up with the FA Trophy in 2025. Once on a shaky financial footing, cup success has brought prosperity to the club and they are seen as a rising force in the English league system.
Current chairman Charlie McLean, head of the Merthyr Supporter’s Trust, has announced he is open to offers for the club. Merthyr Town has been fan-owned since they were reformed back in 2010 but with sustained success on the pitch, some fear the fan-owned model may prove inadequate in funding the club’s future.
McLean has courted offers for the club in the past, with none coming to fruition. The now-established National League side may be seen as a good investment, with Welsh football generally on the rise in recent seasons. As of this season, there is a Welsh club in each of the top 5 English divisions.
Good to see the club putting an emphases on improving the youth setup. Clearly they want to be self sustainable with the youngsters coming through hopefully able to play a major role in the first team or be sold for a decent price.
It'll be interesting to see if this potential takeover goes through, I do wonder if the fans will look to keep a part of the club's ownership in some capacity though.
It'll be interesting to see if this potential takeover goes through, I do wonder if the fans will look to keep a part of the club's ownership in some capacity though.
A sensible decision to ensure the club progresses to the next level. The funding needs to be there in order to do that.
The Montgomery Files: The Road Ahead
It’s been a challenging five years at Merthyr, and at times I have considered giving it up and progressing my own career. I turned down the chance to manage in the Championship to stay here, and that’s because I am genuinely invested in the club’s success. We have a core nucleus of talented, young Welsh players who have been at the club for several seasons now. We’ve got an established style of play, and we’ve tasted success in the league and in the cup. I’m pretty confident we can push onwards and become a genuine threat in the National League this season.
I haven’t deviated too far from my usual 4-4-2 since I joined the club five years ago, and I will be sticking with it again this season with a couple of minor adjustments. As usual, we will look to exploit the wide areas of the pitch with our excellent wingers, playing long and direct to either find the head of our 203cm target man Rhydian Rowlands, or find the feet of the pacey strikers in Gareth Evans and Ian Rimmers. Last season, we shipped a lot of goals, especially from crosses. I will be playing with a wider defence to try and combat this, and hope my centre backs can handle the increased pressure. Throughout the season, I will experiment with dropping the defensive line and giving my playmaker more defensive duties, in order to ease the pressure on the backline.
In terms of transfers, we have already brought in Charlie Delve on loan and Adam Przybek on a permanent deal. The left wing has been a source of constant concern for me the past few seasons, but now I have Delve and the hard-working Isaak Davies there, we should be a lot more potent on that side. Przybek will be my starting goalkeeper, replacing the long-serving Aaron Jones. He’s making the jump up from the Vanarama South, but he was very impressive at that level, and has an inch on Jones in terms of height and a couple of inches in vertical leap. I needed someone who has able to cover more of the goal and be more authoritative on corners, and I’m hoping Przybek is our man.
Ultimately, I don’t see us making too many changes from last season. Our attack was firing last season, scoring 72 goals, which was the 4th best. But we shipped 73, the 3rd worst record in the league, and if I am to improve on 11th we need to fix that. We have a lot of team chemistry, I’ll only be making two changes to the first team, and most of the players have been here at least three seasons; some of them, such as Ryan Bevan, Trystan Jones and Jay Foulston, have been here since my very first transfer window.
I’m cautiously optimistic for the season ahead. 11th is a good foundation, but I don’t want to go backwards. At times last season, we looked like a genuine playoff threat, so let’s aim for that.
Sullivan leaves for Portsmouth
Merthyr can announce that Ian Sullivan has joined Portsmouth on a two-year deal for a £6,000 fee.
Sullivan, who will turn 21 in September, played 30 games for the Martyrs after joining mid-season from rivals Barry Town, where he played 66 Welsh Premier League games over 4 seasons.
Hugo Montgomery had this to say about the youngster:
”Ian Sullivan was definitely one of the more talented players I’ve had the pleasure of coaching here, he’s got a very mature head on his shoulders and reads the game so well. At the end of the day, when a club as big as Portsmouth is interested and a player like Ian wants to move, I don’t want to stand in the way of his development as a footballer. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
Sullivan is the first player sold for cash by Merthyr Town in over 10 seasons, and is also the first Welsh Premier League youngster to successfully use the club as a stepping stone to an established English side. Montgomery will hope he can hold on to some of his other talented players, such as Rhydian Rowlands and Alan Williams, as clubs look to Merthyr as the home of cheap Welsh talent.
You are reading "Hugo Montgomery and the Martyrs of Merthyr".
